Tried & True: Panera Bread Coffee Cake Dupe #FoodieFriday

I used to think you could only eat coffee cake with coffee. Like you could have coffee alone, but not the cake without coffee. This all changed in seventh grade when Charles H. brought in coffee cake WITHOUT COFFEE, and it was delicious. I never found out exactly where it was from, but my mom soon picked up one of Panera Bread’s Coffee Cakes to try and that was close enough. It was probably the same cake for all I know by now. Over the next several years my mom occasionally brought the infamous cake home for me to devour, and I was always grateful.

As an avid cake maker and eater, it finally occurred to me this summer that I should make my own coffee cake instead of buying it. I prefer to know what I am eating and it would just be more fun. Returning again to Pinterest I found a recipe with a very appealing picture. It was a simple recipe from the good ole’ Martha Stewart. I gave it a shot for the first time two months ago, and (spoiler alert) I recently made it again because I love it so much.

The first time I made a couple mistakes due to my own stupidity, so make sure you read the recipe carefully. I missed the whole part about putting the streusel part on before putting it in the oven, but putting it on afterwards still turned out okay. The cooking time was also off, but that is usually the case for my oven in particular. I really appreciated not having to alter anything from the actual recipe on my second go around!

I had the hardest time getting the cake out of the pan on my second try. I do not know if it was because I was eager so the pan was still hot & the cake was less stable or that the streusel on top (that I actually did correctly this time) was making a mess. After some frustration I finally got in on a plate to glaze, which was my favorite part. Seeing it melt onto the cake was beautiful.

So this recipe was tried & true to a tee. I loved it with some black tea. This cake is basically Tea Cake because I don’t drink coffee unless it’s part of a sugary Starbucks Frappucino, but I have heard it is delicious either way.